Building up community health centres should help tackle hospital admission waiting times, according to the Health Minister.
It comes as a new survey from HIQA and the HSE show more than 70% of patients nationally were waiting longer than the HSE’s target of 6 hours.
The figure was even higher in Carlow and Kilkenny with three quarters of respondants from St Luke’s Hospital saying they were left waiting more than six hours for treatment.
37% were waiting up to 12 hours in the local emergency department, with a quarter up to a full day and another 14% longer even than that.
But the level of care at Carlow-Kilkenny’s General Hospital was rated highly at 8 out of 10.
Minister Stephen Donnelly says there needs to be more local options for people needing care so they don’t have to go to A&E, as well as providing better staffing and services in the hospitals.
